Yareli Castro Sevilla

Yareli Castro Sevilla is a PhD Candidate in American Studies with a secondary field in Latinx Studies at Harvard University. Her dissertation titled “Imaginarios de Sinidad: Culture, Identity and Memory of Chinese Mexicans in Contemporary México” is the first comprehensive study of contemporary Chinese Mexican communities in México. Combining historical and anthropological methods, “Imaginarios de Sinidad” takes a migrant-centered approach to tell the stories of the multiple spaces inhabited and imagined by Chinese Mexicans. I weave the social and economic history of the Chinese in Mexico alongside critical discussions of memorials and visual culture, self-archiving, Chinese-Mexican gastronomies, and resiliency and mixed-race vibrancy amid a historical legacy of violence. Ultimately, my project aims to demonstrate what it means to grow up across and in-between cultures and to create distinctive identities.

As a formerly undocumented immigrant and a descendant of Sinaloense Chinese Mexicans, immigration is an integral part of her story and a guiding factor for her scholarship and approaches to research. Having come from a lineage of migrants, she is passionate about storytelling and a truly interdisciplinary approach to studying immigration.

Yareli earned an A.M. in History from Harvard University, and graduated from the University of California, Irvine with two majors in History and Political Science.

My dissertation is the first comprehensive study of contemporary Chinese-Mexican communities in Mexico. Combining historical and anthropological methods, “Imaginarios de Sinidad” takes a migrant-centered approach to tell the stories of the multiple spaces inhabited and imagined by Chinese-Mexicans.